Review: I Wish I Could Hate You by Sujatha Kannan
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Review: I Wish I Could Hate You by Sujatha Kannan
The title of the book is I Wish I Could Hate You and it has been written by Sujatha Kannan. The book falls under the genre of romance and tells the tale of a girl belonging to a South Indian family.
The book has been written largely from the perspective of the main character, Sumana, who though does not believe in love marriages, continues to reject the possible grooms that her parents find suitable for her. She does not understand the heartbreak that her friends face at the hands of love and lacks sympathy for the way they conduct themselves, but ironically she finds herself in a similar situation, if not worse.
The book would appeal to those who are familiar or would like to familiarize themselves to the way of life in certain societies within India. The concerns expressed by the teachers in the first chapter, and especially the parents of the main character are quite believable as real people. The author has done a fair job voicing the dilemma an Indian parent, who is bound by oppressive societal obligations, faces when they see the suffering of their child and are unable to help her. However, it is hard to sympathize with the main character as the personality her is portrayed in a way which contradicts itself in many instances.
The major problem that this book faces is utter lack of grammatical sense and quite a fair number of spelling errors. It reads like a badly translated version of something written in another language. The storytelling is disjointed and facts are sometimes inconsistent. The crux of the plot, which revolves around a woman in an orthodox society finding and losing love and ultimately discovering a part of herself she was never in touch with, is in itself a commendable endeavor. However the dialogues need to be altered drastically for this book to be commendable as a good read. Apart from the tragic one sided love, this book also briefly touches upon subjects like homosexuality, gender roles, sexual harassment and love between an older woman and a younger man, all of which are handled in an embarrassingly juvenile and backward manner. Finally the book concludes in an abrupt manner which leaves the reader perplexed and wondering about answers which are nowhere to be found.
All in all, this is the sort of book you pick up hoping to indulge in an hour or two of emotional roller coaster along with the main character, to find immediately that the only emotion it will draw from you is cringing disappointment but you still finish to see if it gets better, which it doesn’t. I rate this book 2 out of 5 stars, the one additional star solely for the plot.
The book has been written largely from the perspective of the main character, Sumana, who though does not believe in love marriages, continues to reject the possible grooms that her parents find suitable for her. She does not understand the heartbreak that her friends face at the hands of love and lacks sympathy for the way they conduct themselves, but ironically she finds herself in a similar situation, if not worse.
The book would appeal to those who are familiar or would like to familiarize themselves to the way of life in certain societies within India. The concerns expressed by the teachers in the first chapter, and especially the parents of the main character are quite believable as real people. The author has done a fair job voicing the dilemma an Indian parent, who is bound by oppressive societal obligations, faces when they see the suffering of their child and are unable to help her. However, it is hard to sympathize with the main character as the personality her is portrayed in a way which contradicts itself in many instances.
The major problem that this book faces is utter lack of grammatical sense and quite a fair number of spelling errors. It reads like a badly translated version of something written in another language. The storytelling is disjointed and facts are sometimes inconsistent. The crux of the plot, which revolves around a woman in an orthodox society finding and losing love and ultimately discovering a part of herself she was never in touch with, is in itself a commendable endeavor. However the dialogues need to be altered drastically for this book to be commendable as a good read. Apart from the tragic one sided love, this book also briefly touches upon subjects like homosexuality, gender roles, sexual harassment and love between an older woman and a younger man, all of which are handled in an embarrassingly juvenile and backward manner. Finally the book concludes in an abrupt manner which leaves the reader perplexed and wondering about answers which are nowhere to be found.
All in all, this is the sort of book you pick up hoping to indulge in an hour or two of emotional roller coaster along with the main character, to find immediately that the only emotion it will draw from you is cringing disappointment but you still finish to see if it gets better, which it doesn’t. I rate this book 2 out of 5 stars, the one additional star solely for the plot.
Last edited by gali on 14 May 2016, 09:06, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Edited title
Reason: Edited title
